1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of voice recognition and, more specifically, to a voice recognition technique for selecting an item from a list.
2. Description of Related Art
The use of voice recognition applications is on the rise. Voice recognition applications are used for computer interfaces, identification systems and automated telephone systems. As computing power increases and voice recognition techniques improve, the capabilities of voice recognition applications are growing. As companies move towards reducing operating costs, the need for automated systems has increased. One example of an automated system is a voice recognition application that relates to purchasing products. A user connects to the voice recognition application via a telephone (or other device) and proceeds to purchase a product for delivery using normal speech. In this exemplary application, the user can be audibly provided with a list of products from which to choose. The user provides his selection by saying the name of the product he desires to purchase. The voice recognition application then attempts to match the user's utterance with a product's name using conventional voice recognition techniques.
Current voice recognition techniques, however, do not come without drawbacks. A problem that is being experienced by current voice recognition techniques is the matching of a user's utterance with an item from a list. Taking the product purchasing voice recognition application as an example, products can have similar sounding names. As a result, the voice recognition application can experience difficulty in matching the user's utterance with the correct product name from the list. Another problem is that noise can be present in the user's utterance. This can also pose an obstacle during matching. Yet another problem is that the range of users' voices is very broad. This can also pose a problem during matching as the range of sounds that will be correctly matched by a voice recognition application is limited.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a voice recognition technique that effectively matches a user's utterance with an item from a list.